Faithfully
by Moonlit Water Sunny River
Summary: Ed's off to see the world, and Winry waits for him. 20-part oneshot mixed with poetry. Same style as Envy-centric 'Shadows of Memories' also by me, but much fluffier.
1. Train Station

**So I'm having troubles with The Seven Names of Envy Angevin, so I decided to write this in the meantime! This is an EdWin story/poem/thingie written in the same style as Shadows of Memories (which was Envy-centric) but much less angsty. Because, EdWin.**

**I don't usually write this pairing, and I didn't even like them until the second half of Brotherhood. But I have to say, they're pretty cute. I listened to 'Faithfully' by Journey (and the Glee cover as well, which is actually pretty good) on repeat and that's where I got the title.**

_Blue sky and blue eyes_

_Train whistle blowing_

_Gold hair, gold goodbyes_

"_Where are you going?"_

_Everything's bright and he_

_Sees roses in her cheeks_

_Finds a way to say without saying_

"_Please spend your life with me."_


	2. When You Get Back

She'd had him for two years – a whole two years, while he adjusted to having two arms again and Al settled back into his body – and still she didn't want to let him go.

Winry watches the train disappear in the distance, feeling her heart swell as the words he'd said to her replays themselves over and over again.

_Give me half of your life… and I'll give you half of mine!_

But now he's gone again, and she doesn't know for how long.

"That's alright," she says quietly, smiling with no sadness. "I'll be here when you get back."


	3. Dear Winry

_Dear Winry,_

_did you know_

_no matter where I go_

_the stars don't change_

_and neither do you._

_Dear Winry,_

_did you know_

_sleeping under open sky_

_is awfully nice._

_Dear Winry,_

_did you know_

_that corduroy_

_weighs a ton when wet_

_(getting stuck in the rain_

_Is an awful pain)_

_how could I forget_

_Dear Winry,_

_did you know_

_that there are flowers_

_that only bloom at night?_


	4. White Box

He sends little gifts sometimes, and one day in the post, there's a white box. She appreciates everything he sends her even more now that she knows that he has to either make them painstakingly by hand or find exactly what he wants somewhere else.

She almost doesn't want to open it, savouring every corner and every inch of the surface, knowing that he touched it just the same way. But finally, she gives in to the temptation and opens it.

After she remembers to breathe, she pulls the drape of pearls from the box and lets them hang from her fingers. They're not quite regular, the holes not always bored in the exact center, and they're all different shapes and sizes.

The note slips from the inside of the box, and she leans down to pick it up.


	5. Pearls

_Dear Winry,_

_Did you know_

_Inside an oyster_

_A pearl grows_

_and it's another way_

_that one and one makes three_

_took me forever to drill them_

_and just as long to string them_

_but I hope you like them_

_gifts from the sea_


	6. Hand Made

Winry wears it everywhere, and she's proud of its imperfections because they're proof that he made it with his own two flesh hands. It becomes her rosary, her time-clock, these grains of sand turned into something beautiful not through alchemy, but through the processes of life and time and the industry of two hands.

She uses _her _two hands to build him a leg – better than any he has ever had. It's what she's always done whenever he's away, but this time she knows that he can – will – appreciate it.


	7. Standing Tall

_You've got two legs so keep on walking_

_You've got two legs so keep on moving_

_And I'll keep you standing tall_

_I'll keep you standing tall._

_You've got two legs so keep journeying_

_You've got two legs so keep travelling_

_And when you want to come back home_

_I'll keep you standing tall._


	8. Photographs

His letters describe fantastic places and things she's never even heard of, and sometimes she gets a little bit jealous. There's a gypsy girl called Noah, who dances with the flames and weaves ribbons in her hair, and Winry wonders if Ed wants someone more exotic. There's a sweet-faced maid in the coastal town called Katie, and Winry wonders if Ed wants someone more feminine.

But she knows that Ed's a friend to every living thing even if he denies it, and he's too oblivious for the thought of another girl to even cross his mind. Winry ends up more concerned for the broken hearts he's probably leaving behind.

And, in time, she learns to appreciate the photographs he sends with the envelopes, even if they are of Katie and Noah and Ella and Estelle, because they're also of Don and David and Jonas and Smitty, and of the forests of Dienten and the cliffs of Vearnin and the orchards of Xenotime.

He sees beauty everywhere these days, and even if it's through a frozen image, she's seeing it with him.


	9. Open Sky

_The world is open for a million miles and I_

_Can barely breathe in this open sky_

_Miles around in blue and white and green_

_The heavens, the earth and the air in between_

_Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide_

_Atoms swirling and whirling like tides_

_Can you believe it?_

_Neither can I._


	10. Count Your Shadows

Not everything is happy.

In one of his letters – scrawled by candlelight, by the drips of candlewax and the smears and smudges of ink further mauling his chickenscratch handwriting – he is frightened.

_I want the dreams to go away. I thought all the beauty might help, and it does, but sometimes I dream of them. Father, Envy, Wrath, Pride…Especially Pride._

_Count your shadows, Winry. Please, for me, count your shadows._

By the next letter he's back to writing about the sights and sounds and smells of the world he's exploring. But when it's dark outside and there's a cold finger on the base of her spine, she counts her shadows, and double-checks the locks.


	11. Sins

_shadows in the daylight_

_creeping_

_shapes in the shades_

_shifting_

_claws in the corners_

_reaching_

_arms in the ground_

_clutching_

_teeth in the windows_

_crushing_

_eyes in the doorway_

_watching_

_you ask me_

_why are you afraid_

_I ask you_

_Why aren't you?_


	12. Aunt Pinako

There are times when Winry wishes he'd never left. When Aunt Pinako gets sick, she doesn't worry, but as she gets worse and worse, Winry's struck with the horrid thought that if Pinako dies, he might not even know until he gets back.

She tells Pinako this, and is honestly surprised when the old woman laughs. "I'm not going anywhere, Winry, and trust me, that boy has a way of knowing things."

Winry's not convinced, but she does feel better. And it's strange to remind Aunt Pinako that Edward really isn't a boy anymore. As she says it, a blush colours her face scarlet, and the grin on Pinako's face tells the young mechanic that she's had this figured out for years.

Winry fingers her pearl necklace and smiles. She doesn't know why, but she thinks Ed will be coming home soon.

Home to her.


	13. When We Were Young

_When did you grow up?_

_Yesterday we were young_

_And walked to school with bare feet_

_On the dusty dirt road_

_And you threw your books in the ditch_

_And dove head-first into the pond_

_Catching fish with your teeth._

_When did you grow up?_

_Yesterday we were children_

_And we slept curled up in a ball of blankets_

_Inside a pillow fort_

_Where the grown-ups wouldn't find us_

_And clung to each other_

_When the storm raged_

_Though you'd never admit that you were scared._


	14. Dancing

The letter that comes the next day – for now that he has nothing to chase, nothing to worry about, he enjoys writing and has the time to do it.

_Well, it's been fun roaming around, but I miss your apple pie._

She shakes her head in frustration. Typical Ed. Well, she has quite a bit more than apple pie for him when he comes back.

However long that might take him.

She's polished the newly-finished leg to a burnished shine, and rinsed each pearl on her necklace to a gorgeous glint. She'll do it every day until he's back.

And in the field behind the house, for when she needs time away from gears and grease (perish the thought) she's scattered the seeds of a million tiny flowers.

Spring creeps into summer, and they spring up in vermilion and alabaster and chartreuse and cobalt. And still he hasn't returned.

In the still of the hot summer night, she can't sleep. She's soaking through her sheets, sweaty from the oppressive heat and the all-consuming nervousness. He should be back soon. Tomorrow? The day after? The day after that?

Winry peels the sheets away from her damp body and pads through the house as silently as a ghost. The back door opens with a creak, and she slips out, closing it behind her as she steps out under the dome of the night sky. It's a clear night, the moon is full, and the flowers and the stars are like reflections of each other – except which is the world, and which is the glass?

She doesn't know why, but she walks out into the field in her bare feet, twisting and twirling in her white nightgown and feeling the dew-laden blades of grass brush at her bare legs. There's music somewhere, the drumming of her own heart echoing in the cavernous space of the night sky.


	15. Drumming In My Blood

_There's a drumming in my blood_

_And there's music from the sky_

_Tell me why, tell me why_

_There's a drumming in my blood_

_And I'm dancing for my love_

_Tell me why, tell me why_

_There's a drumming in my blood_

_Take my pulse before I die_

_And my feet are bare_

_And my legs are bare_

_And my arms are bare_

_And I don't care_

_And my feet are cold_

_But my story's untold_

_And my arms are cold_

_But let me unfold_

_There's a drumming in my blood_

_And there's music from the sky_

_There's a drumming in my blood_

_Tell me why, tell me why._


	16. Meant To Be

Winry stops suddenly, nearly falling over when she sees a shape standing by the edge of the field. She can see his golden hair from here, and while she is frozen, he begins to walk through the flowers, careful not to step on too many.

"I like what you've done with the place." Edward grins, plucking a white flower from the ground and tucking it behind her ear. The brush of his hand against her skin, no matter how faint is all she needs – she wraps her arms around his shoulders, which have grown even broader in the time since she's seen him, and kisses him fiercely, passionately, how she's wanted to since they were barely old enough to understand the concept.

He kisses back, strong arms folding around her waist and drawing her close. He feels the same but different, and that's exactly what she hoped for. Because they're getting older, and they're getting stronger and taller and wiser, but at the end of the day (or night) they're still Winry Rockbell and Edward Elric and this was always how it was meant to be.


	17. Some Things Don't Change

_Forever we'll stand here_

_in the light of the stars_

_Remembering how easy it comes_

_And who we are_

_Forever we'll stand here_

_Through the dawn and the rain_

_I'll stand by you forever_

_Because some things don't change._


	18. Gypsy Wish

She reaches up and touches the small braid on the side of his head, beads woven into it. There are others like it scattered through his loose hair. "What are these?"

Ed smiles, blushing as he bats at one of them. "It's a gypsy thing. Um…" He starts to stammer, and Winry wonders what could possibly be embarrassing about braids. "What it is, is, um…if there's – I mean, what you do, is you make a wish, or a hope, or a dream or whatever, right? And you weave it into three braids with three beads each." Ed rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "And…well, I was hoping you would wait for me."

Winry stares at him for a moment, then laughs, leaning against his chest. "You thought I wouldn't?"

"W-well, I didn't want to turn into my dad…"

"You won't. I promise."

His face lights up. He reaches forward and touches the pearl necklace gently. "You're wearing it."

"Of course. It's beautiful."

"I…I thought you might not like it because I messed it up a bit."

"I love you." She's rewarded by his face going scarlet. After a moment, he gives her a light, feathery kiss.

"I love you too, Winry."


	19. I'm Still Yours

_Golden skies and golden eyes_

_White dress and cheeks bright_

_Hands entwined, roses and vines_

_Half of your life, half of mine._

_I'm still yours, faithfully_

_Give me your hand, trust in me_

_We'll stand tall, in open sky_

_Forever we'll stand here, you and I._


	20. Dear Ed

_Dear Winry,_

_did you know_

_that I love you?_

_Dear Ed,_

_Did you know_

_That I love you too?_


End file.
